San Antonio’s health sector generated $37 billion in sales last year

Medical industry produced $37 billion in sales in 2015

The economic impact of San Antonio’s healthcare and biosciences sector was updated Thursday at a San Antonio Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

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San Antonio’s health care and biosciences sector has more than doubled over the last decade and now accounts for one of the area’s largest industries with $37 billion in sales of products and services last year, according to new data from the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

The area’s health care industry grew 13.1 percent from $32.7 billion in 2013, according to the Chamber’s biannual survey compiled by Trinity University professors Richard Butler and Mary Stefl.

The medical field may even be San Antonio’s biggest industry, Butler said Thursday at a Chamber luncheon attended by 170 people. The military and manufacturing sectors were comparable in size to health care in 2011, but those sectors have not been measured in five years, he said. The tourism sector, by comparison, produced $13.6 billion in sales last year, Butler said.

The totals include activities at area military health care units and at UT Health, the new name for the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Without those, the size of the local health care sector would be $28.4 billion for 2015.

Even at the $28.4 billion level, the industry doubled in size since 2005. Health care has grown sixfold since 1990, the report’s authors told the luncheon audience.

More than 1 out of every 6 San Antonio-area workers are employed in health care, and about 50,000 net new jobs have been added in the last 10 years. Butler said the health care sector is easily the largest employer in San Antonio with 172,094 workers in 2015, a 13 percent increase from 2013.

“These are good jobs,” Butler said, explaining that the average health care salary in San Antonio was $51,731 in 2015, 11.5 percent higher than the average wage of $46,411 for all area workers.

San Antonio’s health care payroll of $8.9 billion last year is up 14 percent from the prior two years earlier and 87 percent from 2005.

Most of the economic and employment growth during the last two years occurred at hospitals and doctor offices, the authors said. Hospital revenues added $2 billion during the 2013-15 period. Doctor’s offices, which employ about 19,300 people, added about another $1 billion during the two years.

Butler and Stefl have compiled about 30 economic impact reports or updates on various industries for the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. Their health care analysis was based on information from the Texas Workforce Commission, annual financial reports from UT Health as well as local military officials.

Asked during the luncheon if Trump-led health care reforms will affect San Antonio’s health care growth rate, Stefl answered, “There will not be much change in the short run.”

San Antonio’s population growth and aging population will continue to generate health care growth, Butler added. “These are all positive (growth) drivers,” he said.

Preston Gee, Christus Health vice president for strategic marketing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, gave further reasons why health care reforms will not hinder the industry’s growth.

The internet will continue to educate consumers about their choices, he said. Employers will continue pushing more health insurance costs on to their employees, making them seek new choices. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing. If consumers are more engaged, they will become better consumers,” Gee said.

Companies, including Walmart Stores Inc., CVS and Walgreen Co., are stepping up competition by adding clinics to stores, Gee said. Walmart is even considering adding MRI imaging services to its stores, he said.

Some public health care exchanges under the ACA law may go away under Trump reforms, he said, but private exchanges “will ramp up” to take up the void, Gee said.

“The optimists would say, ‘These are the best times,’” Gee said.

Chamber CEO and President Richard Perez said changes in health care will come from reform. “But health care is such an important part of our lives that whatever changes are made, I’m hopeful they will enhance what already is occurring.”

David Hendricks joined the San Antonio Express-News in February 1976 after receiving a bachelor of journalism degree in December 1975 from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1981, he obtained a master's degree in English literature from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He worked seven years on various beats for the Metro desk before working in 1983 at the Express-News Capitol Bureau in Austin, returning to San Antonio later that year and joining the business section. Hendricks was business editor from 1986 to 1992 and started his business column in 1989. His column now appears twice a week. He also covers international business, chambers of commerce and CC Media Holdings Inc. Hendricks also contributes classical music concert reviews, book reviews and travel articles. He is married to Lucila Hendricks. They have a daughter, Emily.